There was silence again for a moment. He broke it by pulling open a drawer in a filing cabinet and taking out a box of tissues.

‘Can you think of anyone who might have a reason to hurt her, Harry? Did she have any enemies? Anyone she’d pissed off, that you know of?’

He blew his nose. ‘No. She didn’t have enemies.’

‘Have you talked to the police?’ Robin asked.

‘I didn’t have to. Valerie’d already done it.’

‘You don’t think your relationship might be relevant? You’ve just got together,’ said Maggie, ‘you’d been friends for years, you love each other, you’ve got to think it might work out. Don’t you think that might tell the police that actually, she had a good reason – a new reason – to stick around?’

‘I thought what her mum said would be enough. She’d told them how close they were, made it clear something was wrong. And to be honest, I didn’t want to get involved unless I had to. Missing white girl, black boyfriend. I …’ He shrugged. ‘It didn’t seem like a good idea.’

‘You were afraid you’d be racially discriminated against? By the police.’

‘Let’s say I was afraid I’d get a lot of unwarranted scrutiny.’

‘Maybe,’ said Robin, ‘your relationship’s relevant for a different reason. Maybe by getting together with you, Becca pissed off someone else.’

‘Who?’

‘An ex of hers? An ex of yours?’

A pause, as if he were really thinking. ‘No.’

‘What about Nick?’

‘Him? She never said anything. Anyway, how would he know? No one knows.’

‘Lucy did.’

‘She’s different. She knows us better than anyone.’

‘Was Becca in any sort of trouble, Harry?’ Maggie with the soft voice again. ‘We’re not police, you’ll get no judgement here. Valerie said she used recreational drugs; you wouldn’t be betraying her if you told us …’

‘Recreational drugs.’ He made it sound ridiculous, old-womanish. ‘Weed, some E now and again, a bit of coke if it was around but nothing regular and actually, not much lately at all. We haven’t been out out, really, since she’s been at The Spot and things have been intense here, too, so …’ He tipped his head forward, covered his face with his hands. ‘I’m wrecked,’ he said. ‘I keep imagining all the things that could have happened to her. Is she alone? Is she frightened?’ He swallowed. ‘I need you to find her. Please.’